f governments fail to act in closing tax avoidance schemes and loopholes, there is a strong possibility that future profits resulting from lower taxes will simply end up in the pockets of senior managers in a tax haven, far out of reach of the British government and certainly not going towards helping the 1 million people who now rely on emergency food hand-outs. It is time for Labour to Act.

Over the last year corporation tax has surged up the political agenda. Partly due to grandstanding by the public affairs committee, and partly due to an increased public appetite for tax justice in the present austerity context...

Britain is open for business, the Government is keen to say, and there are signs over the past few weeks that global firms are indeed looking seriously at entering the door. Yes, the UK offers a business-friendly tax culture. Yes, the workforce is trained and motivated in many areas. But there are complications that could trip up the unwary.

It seems that every day another company hits the headlines for behaving badly. The offences vary, it can be multinationals avoiding tax, banks wrecking the economy, energy giants polluting the environment, utilities price fixing, tech companies passing consumer data to governments or many other things.

Fifteen years ago Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and other statesmen mediated the un-mediatable and created the Northern Ireland that we know today. Some see the bargain as a grand failure. The creation of a parochial sectarian state suspended in a form of purgatory with a bloody history and no future.